Monday, March 8, 2010

Overtime Strategy

Rick Carpiniello at the Rangers Report takes John Tortorella to task for playing it safe in OT last night...

"So do you really want to start your shot-blockers and penalty killers to begin 4-on-4 OT? What happened to Safe is Death? Why not start your top goal scorer, Marian Gaborik, instead of Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan? Or at least start Brandon Dubinsky (who scored the late goal) with Callahan?

Or how about this? Again, you have one point, you need the other one, and it if the opponent gets the additional point, it doesn’t affect you. Why not use three forwards and one defenseman in overtime? Especially if most of your defensemen are going to be spectators as they were last night? Why not go for it? Why not roll the dice and try to win the game and the extra point, instead of playing it safe and risking leaving one on the table?"...you'd expect the safe approach with Renney behind the bench, but I thought Tortorella was supposed to be more of a risk taker? I've got to agree with Carp here. If giving up the second point to Buffalo doesn't matter, as the Rangers are never catching them, why not go for it instead of sitting back hoping Lundqvist bails them out again. The Rangers aren't good enough, obviously, to do this. I'd much rather see them go down trying than being passive....great analysis by Carp as always.